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Dark Venture box art
2019 Ranked #7,186

Dark Venture

A story-based adventure card game in which heroes explore a dystopian wilderness, equip themselves, and complete quests for points. Location entries create branching narratives, supporting competitive, cooperative, or solo journeys.

Adventure Card Game Grid Movement Modular Board

Players

1-4

Play time

60-90 min

Age

12+

Complexity

2.64/5

Rating

7.07

Harder to teach Highly interactive Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.3/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 3.9/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.7/5

Highly interactive

Player scaling 4.0/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 4.5/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

Dark Venture is a retro, story-based, adventure card game where players construct a twisting narrative to explore a dystopian future with their heroes, completing quests to win the game.

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

Dark Venture is a retro, story-based, adventure card game where players construct a twisting narrative to explore a dystopian future with their heroes, completing quests to win the game. Pursue your destiny through the ravaged wilds of Darkgrange where magically-mutated creatures prowl the grounds of every seemingly abandoned building and stretch of dilapidated roadway. From writings found on the deceased body of the hero, Torgon the Hunter: "We are the new rulers of the Earth and this is our struggle against one another. We venture into the darkness, the uncertainty, ambling through the ruins of progress every day. We live the repercussions of the events that spun civilization backwards while propelling the remaining inhabitants forwards along various inconceivable and diverse refractions. The world has unquestionably become a new, peculiar and merciless place." Players maintain a hand of LOCATION, ITEM and CHARACTER cards, playing them on their turn by spending ACTION POINTS. LOCATIONS are played and attached to the map, then descriptive story entries are read that set up actions to be triggered and decisions to be made. ITEMS, including weapons, magical artifacts, armor and potions, can be placed from a player's hand into their heroes inventory for them to use. Players may want to play other CHARACTERS from their hand to complete a quest or thwart an enemy. Competitive: A player's goal in the main COMPETITIVE game mode is to gain the MOST QUEST POINTS over the course of a day, 12 game rounds, tracked on a QUEST TRACK, which can take about 60-90 minutes to play. Cooperative: In the COOPERATIVE mode, players work, fight, move and complete their quests together to each get a set number of quest points before the end of the day, in 12 game rounds. Solo: In the SOLO mode, players can choose to play a short game of 6 game rounds, attempting to get a set number of quest points before lunch, or a full game of 12 game rounds, attempting to get even more quest points before the end of the day.

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Editions

Language and publisher variants currently recorded in the catalog.

Edition Year Language Publisher / Region
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Player resources

Rulebooks, player aids, FAQs, and solo resources.

No files imported yet.

Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
1–4
Best with
1–4
Play time
60–90 min
Age
12+
Complexity
2.6/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

1
Rob Lemon

Artists

1
Rob Lemon

Publishers

1
Gilded Skull Games

Linked items

No published linked games yet.